Translator Widget

sexta-feira, 18 de janeiro de 2013

Peace for our Time - The Ministry of Silly Walks

AGAINST KNOWINGNESSOne of the lessons of the Hitler
period is the stupidity of cleverness. How many were the expert arguments with
which Jews dismissed the like­lihood of Hitler's rise, when it was already as
clear as daylight.

I recall a conversation with an economist who demonstrated
the impossibility of Germany’s militarization from the interests of Bavarian
brewers. And in any case, according to the clever people, fascism was impossible
in the West. Clever people have always made things easy for barbarians, because
they are so stupid. It is the well-informed, farsighted judgments, the prog­noses
based on statistics and experience, the observations which begin: “I happen to be
an expert in this field,” it is the well-founded, conclusive statements which
are untrue.

Hitler was against intellect and humanity. But there is
also an intel­lect which is against humanity: it is distinguished by
well-informed supe­riority.

Postscript

That cleverness is becoming
stupidity is inherent in the historical tendency. To be reasonable, in the
sense used by Chamberlain when he called Hitler's demands at Bad Godesbcrg'
unreasonable, means to insist that there be equivalence between giving and taking.
Such reason is mod­eled on exchange.

Objectives may be attained only through
the mediation of a kind of market, in the little advantages that power can
steal while respecting the rule by which one concession is exchanged for
another. Cleverness is helpless as soon as power disregards that rule and
simply appropriates direcdy. The medium of traditional bourgeois intelligence, discussion,
is in decline.

Even individuals can no longer converse, and know it; that is
why they have turned card games into a serious, responsi­ble institution that calls
on all their powers, so that although there are no conversations, the silence goes
unheard. It is no different on the big stage.

A fascist does not like to be spoken
to. When others have their say, he takes it as an impudent interruption. He is
impervious to reason because he rec­ognizes it only in concessions made by
others.

The contradiction of the
stupidity of cleverness is necessary. For bourgeois reason is obliged to claim
universality while its own develop­ment curtails it. Just as, in an exchange,
each part)’ receives its due but social injustice nevertheless results, the
exchange economy’s form of reflec­tion, the prevalent rationality, is just,
universal, and particularistic, the instrument of privilege widiin equality.

Fascism makes it pay the price. It openly represents the particular interest,
thus unmasking reason, which wrongly flaunts its universality, as itself
limited. That this turns clever peo­ple all at once into dunces convicts reason
of its own unreason.

But the fascist, too,
suffers under the contradiction. For bourgeois reason is not only
particularistic but also, indeed, universal, and in deny­ing its universality
fascism defeats itself.

Those who came to power in Germany were smarter than
the liberals and more stupid. The “progress toward the new order” has been
carried largely by people whose con­sciousness progress has left behind—bankrupts,
sectarians, fools. They are exempt from error as long as their power precludes
all competition.

In the competition between states, however, the fascists not
only are just as capa­ble of making mistakes but—with qualities such as myopia,
bigotry, igno­rance of economic forces, and, above all, the inability to
perceive the neg­ative and include it in their assessment of the situation as a whole—are also impelled subjectively toward the catastrophe which, in their
hearts, they have always expected.
Adorno and Horkheimer in Dialectic of Enlightment

AND WE HAVE LIFTOFF!

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) Colin Z. Robertson's Soundtrack

Here at least We shall be free

Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

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Quisquis ovem simulat, hunc lupus ore vorat

Don't be trapped by old concepts, Matthew, you're evolving into a new lifeform.

"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Lupus in fabula

Kitler

Heil, Kitty!

Elefant Island

My name is Frankie Wild-o. Me hut's on Elephant Isle. The wall's without a single brick And the roof's without a tile. Nevertheless I must confess, By many and many a mile, It's the most palatial dwelling place You'll find on Elephant Isle.

William Irwin Thompson's At the Edge of History

Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Little by little the night turns around
Counting the leaves which tremble at dawn
Lotuses lean on each other in yearning
Under the eaves the swallow is resting
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Over the mountain watching the watcher
Breaking the darkness
Waking the grapevine
Knowledge of love is knowledge of shadow
Love is the shadow that ripens the wine
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Witness the man who raves at the wall
Making the shape of his questions to Heaven
Whether the sun will fall in the evening
Will he remember the lesson of giving
Set the controls for the heart of the sun

The Golden Apples of The Sun

Wandering Angus (Golden Apples of the Sun) Wm. Butler Yeats I went out to the hazelwood Because a fire was in my head Cut and peeled a hazel wand And hooked a berry to a thread And when white moths were on the wing And moth-like stars were flickering out I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout. When I had laid it on the floor And gone to blow the fire aflame Something rustled on the floor And someone called me by my name. It had become a glimmering girl With apple blossoms in her hair Who called me by my name and ran And vanished in the brightening air. Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands I will find out where she has gone And kiss her lips and take her hand And walk through long green dappled grass And pluck till time and times are done The silver apples of the moon The golden apples of the sun.